The AMD Execution Thread [2007 - 2017]

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Rumor of Samsung eyeing buying AMD which would mean "The end of Intel" according to INQ LOL.

Not technically according to the Inq, actually. According to some anonymous letter-writer that wrote the most sensational letter about the issue (guaranteed to get one's letter published on the Inq) which the Inq's sensationalist "editors" (I use quotes because their editing skills are severely lacking) chose to use as the headline for the letters of the day.
 
AMD + ATI: One Year Later

So far the big winner from the AMD-ATI deal is clearly nVidia. Today nVidia is worth two times and a half more than it was one year ago, while AMD is worth less than it was before buying ATI!
This is simply amazing, AMD bought a 5 billion dollar company and instead of becoming a 15 billion dollar company nVidia was the one that became such company!
Also during the last 1-year period Intel market value increased 43%.

This merge was the biggest mistake in the computing history, and will be a colapse for 2 big company.

We truly hope that AMD takes our constructive criticism into account and changes the “paper launch” policy ATI is using for some many years; this is a bad habit for everyone, especially for the company’s image, as people get the impression that the company is just a big mouth.
 
Vertex_shader, why don't you give it a rest. Your tendency to bash AMD at every opportunity is becoming quite tiresome. Your disdain for the company is well known, so please just shut up already.
 
dead man walking - Hector Ruiz on CNBC's After The Bell July 17, 2007
Thanks for the link! :) And in case you were wondering, new posters that post links, or other things that could be considered as spam, go through the moderation queue - sorry about that, it's sadly the only good way to prevent spam as effectively as we do AFAIK.

What worries me greatly with what Hector said there is that he's actually *not* that worried about the credit crunch. Are we sure the guy isn't just delusional? This crunch implies that all hopes for a PE Angel are gone now, and that getting new debt will be much more expensive. In AMD's situation, both seem to be absolutely catastrophic news to me.

Assuming that AMD will be unable to raise more than $500M extra cash in the next 18 months (excluding by selling assets), this implies that they will have $1.5B+$0.8B+$0.5B = $2.8B of cash to use until 2009. The extra $800M comes from what they claimed they could sell in terms of 200mm tools, buildings and lands, as well as Spansion.

This will be for a total of 6 quarters, which implies that AMD's burn rate will need to be lower than $450M to survive, and I'm actually being quite optimistic here. If you are optimistic and presume capital expenditures of ~$1.5B/year and interest expenses (minus interest income) of $80M/quarter, that puts us at about $2.75B of expenses in that period.

Of course, that does NOT include operating losses! As such, according to my calculations and in order to survive, AMD must have an aggregate operating loss of *zero* or better over that 18 months period. However, larger losses in the short-term being compensated by larger profits at the end of the period would also work, as that would allow them to much more easily raise extra cash.

This is quite approximative, but I believe that it highlights the problems plaguing AMD quite nicely. From my POV, these calculations are actually optimistic in every possible way, but perhaps I have missed some factors (are there assets they could easily sell in 2008 to generate extra cash? are there other factors that will noticeably affect the cash burn rate?)
 
Vertex_shader, why don't you give it a rest. Your tendency to bash AMD at every opportunity is becoming quite tiresome. Your disdain for the company is well known, so please just shut up already.

I write what i think, this is why we are in a forum.
I have no idea why you think i bash AMD, there is no lies in the link.

I feel really bad what happening with AMD/ATi and this is very bad from user side too because no real competion running, but honestly you see anything what will save this company? when yes than tell me (and please don't come out with Fusion, its coming in 2009, we are in 2007 early Q3).
 
Or the short version for ATI: either R700 will truly rock or that was it with the high-end gfx. That is, if AMD should still be able to exist by then. This time I'm very sure.
 
More on the AMD/Intel lawsuit:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/07/27/ap3960024.html
EU regulators said Friday they have charged Intel Corp. with monopoly abuse for blocking rival computer chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s access to customers.

Intel (nasdaq: INTC - news - people ) immediately said its conduct had been lawful and said it welcomed the chance to finally respond to allegations made by its main competitor.

The European Commission claimed that Intel gave "substantial rebates" to computer makers for buying most of their x86 computer processing units, or CPUs, from Intel; that it made payments to manufacturers to get them to delay or cancel product lines using AMD chips; and that it sold its own chips below cost on average to strategic server customers on bids against AMD products to try to muscle into that business.

It said each of these alone broke EU law by shutting out AMD from the market. Together they amounted to a strategy that damaged the rules of fair play in an effort to keep AMD from eroding Intel's market leadership, it said.
 
I guess we know where AMD expects that extra income to come from. ;)

The time frame on these sorts of things is awfully long in US courts. I don't know what procedure the EU's executive arm follows, but any defense Intel brings up would likely take time.
Can they can appeal, then appeal the appeals, then appeal any damages?

So what if (BIG IF) AMD wins a judgement and gets some grudging restitution in 2012?
 
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I think both Microsoft and Intel should stop supplying to Europe and see how the fat pigs over there in Brussels start to squeal then.
 
I'm sure AMD would weep if Intel just vacated the European market. ;)

I don't think giving up on billions of revenue right now to make a point about possible fines in the tens or hundreds of millions years down the road is a worthwhile investment.
 
What if Nvidia tries to buy AMD?

Jen-Hsun wasn't born yesterday...
IF (and that's a big IF) both companies had their current market value and cash reserves at a time before the ATI acquisition and CPU price war with Intel, Nvidia could have entered into such an agreement.
But now ? No way.
SiS or any other small player still in existence would be much more VIA(ble) targets. ;)

I've heard that AMD talked to Nvidia first early last year about a possible M&A, but Jen-Hsun wouldn't accept it unless he was made the new CEO of the merged company (oh, the egos...). Of course, this may all just be the stuff that urban legends are made of. :LOL:
 
Jen-Hsun wasn't born yesterday...
IF (and that's a big IF) both companies had their current market value and cash reserves at a time before the ATI acquisition and CPU price war with Intel, Nvidia could have entered into such an agreement.
But now ? No way.
SiS or any other small player still in existence would be much more VIA(ble) targets. ;)

I've heard that AMD talked to Nvidia first early last year about a possible M&A, but Jen-Hsun wouldn't accept it unless he was made the new CEO of the merged company (oh, the egos...). Of course, this may all just be the stuff that urban legends are made of. :LOL:
Or maybe he was the one in touch with reality...
 
Could you please people enlighten me on these 2 things.

1. I dont have much knowledge on this subject, but what this thread basically says it is that AMD has no solution at all, and it is doomed to a certain bankruptcy in 2009, dragging along ATI.

2. It is impossible to fab only companies, like TSMC, to have state of the art processes? Roughly, is that because they can only profit from keeping their lines busy, and doing that with the state of the art is not profitable? So, Intel is better at fabs than fabs.

What can I say then...?

GOD HATES FABS

Is it?
 
Could you please people enlighten me on these 2 things.

1. I dont have much knowledge on this subject, but what this thread basically says it is that AMD has no solution at all, and it is doomed to a certain bankruptcy in 2009, dragging along ATI.

Bankruptcy is a possibility, but there are a lot of possibilities that may come to pass before then.
AMD could possible flounder around desperately past 2009, and it might be able to restructure and survive as a 2nd rate CPU manufacturer, much as it was prior to K7.

2. It is impossible to fab only companies, like TSMC, to have state of the art processes? Roughly, is that because they can only profit from keeping their lines busy, and doing that with the state of the art is not profitable? So, Intel is better at fabs than fabs.
Foundries can have good processes, but they just aren't geared for the very specific kind of processes high-performance CPUs need.

The vast majority of the silicon sold in the world doesn't need the kind of process Intel uses.
 
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